Former National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu, has dismissed allegations of siphoning ₦44 billion.
Naijaonpoint reports that Shehu made the denial in an interview with Arise News on Monday.
She stated that she reported alleged financial irregularities within the agency to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other authorities before her suspension.
Shehu said she resumed office on October 18, 2023, with extensive knowledge of the ministry, having previously worked on the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme and participated in the ministry’s establishment.
She said, “I was appointed on the 18th of October, 2023, by the President. And when I got appointed and resumed work, it’s a ministry I had worked before. Since the establishment of the ministry, I was part and parcel of the formation of the ministry. So I know every programme that took place under the ministry, exactly how much funds were left from the previous administration in the ministry for each programme.”
She said she played a key role in digitising the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme and introducing financial literacy to improve transparency and accountability.
“I was fully instrumental in digitising the programme, bringing financial literacy for transparency and accountability into play. Together with the World Bank team, I brought financial literacy into play, bringing the informal sector into the formal sector. We opened over 1,900,000 accounts of beneficiaries, taking financial literacy to the grassroots. Those were some of the biggest achievements that allowed for transparency and accountability,” she said.
She also spoke about her role in the Tinubu-Shettima presidential campaign.
“After the Tinubu-Shettima campaign, in which I played a major role, I was the National Director for the Social and Humanitarian Directorate of the campaign. Under that leadership, I mobilised women and youth, including beneficiaries that we had empowered at the Conditional Cash Transfer Office. That movement contributed to the Tinubu-Shettima campaign and was instrumental in bringing about almost three million votes to this administration,” She stated.
She said that after assuming office as NSIPA chief executive, she discovered what she described as weak financial controls within the agency.
“When I got to office… I discovered weak financial controls. Money was being touched without accountability. So I began to do my own audit. I also called the attention of the minister, who was my boss, Betta Edu. I also called the attention of the permanent secretary… to see how such movement of funds could be accounted for and to let the minister know that, under the mandate of NSIPA, she didn’t have any right to be touching the funds the way she was touching them.”
She alleged that the minister appointed more than 10 officials into NSIPA in violation of the agency’s mandate.
“She had appointed over 10 people in my agency, which was a violation of the mandate of NSIPA. I, as the CEO, was supposed to make the appointments of the programme managers who were supposed to help me deliver on the mandate assigned to me.”
According to her, transactions bypassed her office entirely.
“There were movements of funds that I didn’t give approval for, I didn’t give authorisation for, and I didn’t consent to. Transactions never came to me. They started from Betta Edu to the programme managers that she appointed, who were only reporting to her.”
She further alleged that the programme managers were instructed not to report to her.
“She never called me for a meeting, and any letter I wrote to her office, she never responded. She asked all the programme managers never to report to me except her.”
